(Reuters) - Chip supplier Marvell Technology Group Ltd on Thursday said it has agreed to buy peer Inphi Corp in a $10 billion cash-and-stock deal aimed at broadening Marvell's footprint in data centers and 5G network infrastructure.
Marvell competes against Broadcom Inc to supply chips that move data around on copper-based cables. But Inphi designs chips that move data over fiber-optic cables hundreds of times faster than copper cables.
Companies such as Amazon.com, Alphabet Inc's Google, Microsoft Corp and Facebook Inc use Inphi's chips for optical connections inside the massive data centers that power their online services.
Inphi has also won deals to help Microsoft string together its data centers with high-speed optical connections and to connect various parts of 5G networks.
Data centers and 5G infrastructure "are our two key markets" Marvell Chief Executive Matt Murphy told Reuters in an interview. "They are right in there," Murphy said of Inphi, "so the fit is really good."
The deal comes amid a flurry of tie-ups in the semiconductor industry this year. Advanced Micro Devices Inc on Tuesday said it would buy Xilinx Inc in a $35 billion deal, following Nvida Corp's $40 billion purchase of SoftBank Group Corp's Arm Ltd and Analog Devices Inc's $21 billion acquisition of Maxim Integrated Products.
Under the deal, Marvell will give Inphi shareholders $66 in cash and 2.32 shares of stock in the combined company for each share of Inphi. After the deal, Marvell shareholders will own about 83% of the combined company, with Inphi shareholders owning about 17%.
Marvell plans to use balance sheet cash and debt to fund the deal, taking on about $4 billion in new debt in connection with the transaction with financing commitments from JPMorgan Chase & Co.
While Marvell is headquartered in Silicon Valley, it's currently domiciled in Bermuda. After the transaction, both Marvell and Inphi will become subsidiaries of a new U.S.-domiciled holding company. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2021.
(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
The US is allowing a growing number of chip companies to supply Huawei with components as long as these are not used for its 5G business, people briefed by Washington said, in a potential lifeline for the Chinese group.
Analysts believe this could mean that tough US sanctions this year against China’s leading technology group could be less threatening to its overall business than previously thought. While the sanctions would still pose a grave challenge to Huawei’s 5G business, the company’s important smartphone arm might have a chance to recover.
The US Department of Commerce “has been telling companies in recent conversations that while licences to supply Huawei are handled with a view to denial, this can be overcome if you can demonstrate that your technology does not support 5G”, said a semiconductor executive involved in dialogue with the department, referring to the cutting-edge telecoms infrastructure.
Executives at two Asian semiconductor companies said they were optimistic that their applications for licences to resume shipments to Huawei would be approved. “It has been indicated to us that chips for mobile devices are not a problem,” said one of them.
This is a strong indication the US intends to allow Huawei to stay in the handset business
Washington barred companies worldwide from manufacturing for or selling to the Chinese group components that used US technology, under rules imposed in May and then tightened in August. Given the central role of US technology in the global semiconductor industry, the sanctions threatened to choke off Huawei’s access to chips.
But recently Washington has appeared more willing to permit companies to supply Huawei with components for non-5G uses. The display unit of South Korea’s Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday that it had received a US licence for shipping organic light-emitting diodes, or OLED displays, for handsets to Huawei.
“We believe this is a strong indication the US intends to allow Huawei to stay in the handset business, since, as we have argued, it does not present an obvious national security threat to the US,” wrote Edison Lee, an analyst at Jefferies, in a research note.
Mr Lee said Japan’s Sony and Chinese-owned OmniVision, headquartered in California, had also been granted licences to supply Huawei with CMOS image sensors — chips used in smartphone cameras.
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OmniVision did not respond to a request for comment.
At an earnings briefing on Wednesday, Sony declined to comment on whether it had been granted a licence to resume selling its image sensors for use in Huawei smartphones.
Sony was forced to cut its full-year profit guidance for its image sensor business by 38 per cent after halting its sales to Huawei from September 15.
The US government, which has argued for more than a decade that Huawei’s telecoms infrastructure equipment could pose a security threat, originally put the Chinese company on a list of entities subject to export controls last year.
In the year that followed, more than 300 companies applied for licences to allow them to continue doing business with Huawei, of which about one-third were granted. US chip companies Intel and AMD were among those that received a licence. Intel has continued to supply Huawei with processors for servers in its cloud computing business.
After a second wave of sanctions was announced in May, Huawei started stockpiling the chips needed to power its telecoms networking gear, such as base stations. Its telecoms infrastructure unit, which builds and manages mobile networks for carriers from China Mobile to Deutsche Telekom, has enough inventory for about two years, according to industry executives.
But Huawei’s consumer business, which accounts for more than half of its revenue, was harder hit. The tougher US restrictions announced in August not only block contract chipmakers from manufacturing the latest smartphone processor designed by Huawei in-house, but also bar vendors such as Taiwan’s MediaTek from selling it off-the-shelf chipsets.
Jefferies’ Mr Lee said if Washington was willing to allow Huawei’s smartphone business to survive, both US chip company Qualcomm and MediaTek could receive licences later this year to resume sales of certain chips needed for smartphones to Huawei.
However, industry experts caution against too high expectations on the matter, pointing to what they say are the Trump administration’s erratic policy decisions.
Samsung Electronics said on Thursday it posted 12.35 trillion won in operating profit and almost 67 trillion won in sales for the third quarter.
It is an increase of 58% and 8%, respectively, year-on-year. Samsung said it was the company's highest quarterly sales ever. Operating profit was also its best performance since the third quarter of 2018.
The semiconductor business contributed 5.54 trillion won in operating profit.
Demand for memory was better than expected from mobile, Samsung said, especially from low and mid-end phones while Huawei's inventory buildup has also helped the business.
Meanwhile, demand from servers somewhat weakened in the quarter but PC demand rose.
Samsung's mobile business contributed 4.45 trillion won in operating profit.
Smartphone sales rose sharply from the second quarter thanks to the launches of the Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Z Fold 2. Mass models also sold well in regions like India, Samsung said.
Efficient cost management, meanwhile, improved profitability, the South Korean tech giant said.
Samsung's consumer electronics business contributed 1.56 trillion won in operating profit.
Pent-up demand from the easing of lockdown measures from COVID-19 along with the at-home trend saw TV demand surge in the quarter, the company added.
This led to Samsung's display business contributing 470 billion won in operating profit for the quarter, thanks to increased demand from smartphones and TVs.
A new set of American semiconductor leaders is rising, fueled by pandemic-driven demand for their chips that they are looking to parlay into blockbuster deals to disrupt an industry traditionally dominated by Intel Corp.
The U.S. chip industry has historically been a mix of niche players, midsize companies and Intel. But this year, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., long the underdog in the computer-processor market, and Nvidia Corp., a graphics-processing specialist, are mounting their biggest challenge yet to level the playing...
The researchers used the newly developed microfluidic platform to produce three different types of vesicles with a uniform size but different cargoes: β-galactosidase (red vesicle), glucose oxidase (green vesicle) or horseradish peroxidase (blue). The water-soluble enzymes gradually convert the starting product into the final colored product Resorufin, which — like all of the intermediates — enters the surrounding solution via selective channels in the vesicle membranes. Credit: University of Basel
Researchers at the University of Basel have developed a precisely controllable system for mimicking biochemical reaction cascades in cells. Using microfluidic technology, they produce miniature polymeric reaction containers equipped with the desired properties. This 'cell on a chip' is useful not only for studying processes in cells, but also for the development of new synthetic pathways for chemical applications or for biological active substances in medicine.
In order to survive, grow and divide, cells rely on a multitude of different enzymes that catalyze many successive reactions. Given the complexity of processes in living cells, it is impossible to determine when specific enzymes are present at what concentrations and what their optimum proportions are relative to one another. Instead, researchers use smaller, synthetic systems as models in order to study these processes. These synthetic systems simulate the subdivision of living cells into separate compartments.
Close similarity to natural cells
Now, the team led by Professors Cornelia Palivan and Wolfgang Meier from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Basel has developed a new strategy for producing these synthetic systems. Writing in the journal Advanced Materials, the researchers describe how they create various synthetic miniature reaction containers, known as vesicles, which—taken as a whole—serve as models of a cell.
"Unlike in the past, this is not based on the self-assembly of vesicles," explains Wolfgang Meier. "Rather, we've developed efficient microfluidic technology in order to produce enzyme-loaded vesicles in a controlled manner." The new method allows the researchers to tweak the size and composition of the different vesicles so that various biochemical reactions can take place inside them without influencing one another—like in the different compartments of a cell.
Elena dos Santos explains how the group created the artificial cell on a chip. Credit: Swiss Nanoscience Institute, University of Basel
In order to manufacture the desired vesicles, the scientist feed the various components into tiny channels on a silicon-glass chip. On this chip, all of the microchannels come together at a junction. If the conditions are configured correctly, this arrangement produces an aqueous emulsion of uniformly sized polymer droplets that are formed at the point of intersection.
Precise control
The polymer membrane of the vesicles acts as an outer shell and encloses an aqueous solution. During production, the vesicles are filled with different combinations of enzymes. As first author Dr. Elena C. dos Santos explains, this technique provides some key advantages: "The newly developed method allows us to produce tailor-made vesicles and to precisely adjust the desired combination of enzymes inside."
Proteins incorporated into the membrane act as pores and allow the selective transport of compounds into and out of the polymer vesicles. The pore sizes are designed to allow the passage of only specific molecules or ions, thereby enabling the separate study of cellular processes that take place closely alongside one another in nature.
"We were able to show that the new system offers an excellent foundation for studying enzymatic reaction processes," explains Cornelia Palivan. "These processes can be optimized to boost the production of a desired final product. What's more, the technology allows us to examine specific mechanisms that play a role in metabolic diseases or that affect the reaction of certain drugs in the body."
The work was supported by the Swiss Nanoscience Institute at the University of Basel, the Swiss National Science Foundation and the National Centre of Competence in Research "MSE—Molecular Systems Engineering."
More information: Elena C. Santos et al. Combinatorial Strategy for Studying Biochemical Pathways in Double Emulsion Templated Cell‐Sized Compartments, Advanced Materials (2020). DOI: 10.1002/adma.202004804
Citation: Researchers develop artificial cell on a chip (2020, October 28) retrieved 28 October 2020 from https://ift.tt/3oB7QRe
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
Researchers at the University of Basel have developed a precisely controllable system for mimicking biochemical reaction cascades in cells. Using microfluidic technology, they produce miniature polymeric reaction containers equipped with the desired properties. This "cell on a chip" is useful not only for studying processes in cells, but also for the development of new synthetic pathways for chemical applications or for biological active substances in medicine.
In order to survive, grow and divide, cells rely on a multitude of different enzymes that catalyze many successive reactions. Given the complexity of processes in living cells, it is impossible to determine when specific enzymes are present at what concentrations and what their optimum proportions are relative to one another. Instead, researchers use smaller, synthetic systems as models in order to study these processes. These synthetic systems simulate the subdivision of living cells into separate compartments.
Close similarity to natural cells
Now, the team led by Professors Cornelia Palivan and Wolfgang Meier from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Basel has developed a new strategy for producing these synthetic systems. Writing in the journal Advanced Materials, the researchers describe how they create various synthetic miniature reaction containers, known as vesicles, which -- taken as a whole -- serve as models of a cell.
"Unlike in the past, this is not based on the self-assembly of vesicles," explains Wolfgang Meier. "Rather, we've developed efficient microfluidic technology in order to produce enzyme-loaded vesicles in a controlled manner." The new method allows the researchers to tweak the size and composition of the different vesicles so that various biochemical reactions can take place inside them without influencing one another -- like in the different compartments of a cell.
In order to manufacture the desired vesicles, the scientist feed the various components into tiny channels on a silicon-glass chip. On this chip, all of the microchannels come together at a junction. If the conditions are configured correctly, this arrangement produces an aqueous emulsion of uniformly sized polymer droplets that are formed at the point of intersection.
The researchers used the newly developed microfluidic platform to produce three different types of vesicles with a uniform size but different cargoes: ?-galactosidase (red vesicle), glucose oxidase (green vesicle) or horseradish peroxidase (blue). The water-soluble enzymes gradually convert the starting product into the final colored product Resorufin, which -- like all of the intermediates -- enters the surrounding solution via selective channels in the vesicle membranes.
Precise control
The polymer membrane of the vesicles acts as an outer shell and encloses an aqueous solution. During production, the vesicles are filled with different combinations of enzymes. As first author Dr. Elena C. dos Santos explains, this technique provides some key advantages: "The newly developed method allows us to produce tailor-made vesicles and to precisely adjust the desired combination of enzymes inside."
Proteins incorporated into the membrane act as pores and allow the selective transport of compounds into and out of the polymer vesicles. The pore sizes are designed to allow the passage of only specific molecules or ions, thereby enabling the separate study of cellular processes that take place closely alongside one another in nature.
"We were able to show that the new system offers an excellent foundation for studying enzymatic reaction processes," explains Cornelia Palivan. "These processes can be optimized to boost the production of a desired final product. What's more, the technology allows us to examine specific mechanisms that play a role in metabolic diseases or that affect the reaction of certain drugs in the body."
Apple will be using a superpowered version of the A14 chips used in the latest iPhones and iPads, devices that are already eviscerating all competing performance data inside future Apple Silicon Macs, a report claims.
Apple’s A14 chip has a superpower version
While we wait for macOS Big Sur, take a moment to consider Apple’s plans to field more powerful A-series chips inside future Macs, likely to be introduced next month.
What we didn’t know is the extent of Apple’s ambition. Will these new Macs be compromised systems that don’t yet deliver the kind of flexibility and performance we expect from Intel-based systems? Or will Apple deliver self-developed machines that match or exceed them?
The latest news suggest it will be more the latter than the first.
The China Times tells us the first Apple Silicon iMac will make its debut in early 2021, but also gives us the name of the chips Apple will use inside these Macs: The A14X and A14T.
The A14X and A14T
These will be superpowered versions of the A14 chip, with the A14X scheduled to sit inside this fall’s Apple Silicon MacBooks and the A14T headed to iMac.
This isn’t the first time Apple has delivered a more capable version of the processor inside its products – just take a look at the various builds of previous chips used in iPhones and iPads – iPad chips deliver even more performance.
This is faster and more efficient, but its performance is constrained by the space inside an iPhone or iPad – Apple needs to make sure the chip doesn’t overheat, and is also limited by battery life. Life’s not like that on a Mac – there’s more space for the heat sink -- which means the company will be able to push the processors to their best possible performance.
That’s what the report claims, telling us the following about the chips:
A14 chip, code-name Sicilian: This is the one in the iPad Air 4 and iPhone 12.
A14X, code-name Tonga. This is the processor we’ll find in the MacBook range and iPad Pro.
A14T, code-name Mt. Jade. You’ll get this in the future iMac, which will also make use of Apple’s own self-developed Mac GPU processor, called Lifuka, the report claims. Apple introduced an Intel-based iMac earlier.
From China Times (via 9-5Mac)
“The upcoming ARM-based MacBook released in November will use a self-developed A14X processor. In addition to the first Apple Silicon processor A14X used in MacBooks that has been mass-produced by TSMC 5nm, according to Apple’s supply chain news, Apple will launch the first self-developed GPU – codenamed Lifuka – next year. The first desktop computer processor A14T – codenamed Mt Jade – will be produced in the first half of next year.”
We don’t know the extent to which the chips are similar: How many cores they have, what the top frequency will be or anything else, but it’s probably easy to predict that whatever it is these chips can do, Apple will want them to at least match and probably exceed the performance you can expect from Macs powered by Intel processors.
Toward the 3nm Mac
One advantage it has for this plan is that next year’s Macs will host A15 series chips, including the A15, A15X and A15T. I’m guessing these will be followed by 3nm processors in 2022-23.
We don’t know whether Apple will be able to deliver the same degree of performance improvements year by year on Macs that it already does on iPhones – though we do know that if it does manage to do so, Mac users will be delighted. Can anyone else recall the empty years between Mac Pro updates, for example?
We’ll find out more at the Apple November Mac event, which is currently anticipated to take place on Nov. 17 which probably means the invites will slip out around Nov. 10.
